Using FileMaker to connect to MySQL: Licence needed?

We are developing and selling FileMaker runtime applications that have the ability to connect to a MySQL server and exchange data with it, using either smartpill's php plugin or the MBS plugin. I am a bit confused about the licence of MySQL in this combination. Though MySQL is a free software, the explanations Oracle gives for their understanding of the GPL licence state:

OEMs, ISVs and VARs that want the benefits of embedding commercial binaries of MySQL software in their commercial applications but do not want to be subject to the GPL and do not want to release the source code for their proprietary applications should purchase a commercial license from Oracle. Purchasing a commercial license means that the GPL does not apply, and a commercial license includes the assurances that distributors typically find in commercial distribution agreements. (MySQL :: Commercial License for OEMs, ISVs and VARs )

Are there "commercial binaries of MySQL software" involved? And if so, who is the one who needs to buy a commercial licence here: FileMaker Inc., the plugin vendors, we, or no one at all?

If you are connecting to a MySQL database as an external data source, I'm quite sure that this is not the same as embedding binaries of MySQL software in your application. Sounds more like this is for a situation where you are inventing a new commercial database software product that is physically built around MySQL code.

connection is strictly via the ODBC driver (for MySQL). There is no "embedding", although you can "see" what is in MySQL and interact with it as if it were a FileMaker native table of data. This is ESS. You can also perform the two script steps:

Import - SELECT query

Execute SQL - to INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE

(Import does bring data in and the Execute SQL does change the data on the server, but there is no "live" connection.)

As I said we are not using ESS and the ODBC driver but either PHP with the smartpill plugin or the MBS plugin. The former has the MySQL-Library included, the later requires the library to be present and loads it at runtime.

Hi Christian, but the question is: is it these libraries Oracle is talking about? The web is full of discussions about this problem in various situations, but it seems no one knows for sure what is correct here.

I'll echo Beverly, the key is the phrase "embedding commercial binaries of MySQL software in their commercial applications." I can't give you legal advice but I can help you make your discussion with one efficient. The answer depends upon exactly what your company plans to do. Have a sit-down and a demo with a good licensing attorney and focus on how your software interacts with MySQL. If it is purely data pull/push through a driver, your atty will want to zero in on that fact.

Since this is the foundation of your company's product, it will pay to get this right. Nothing is worse than having someone rip you off and then claim your hard work has become freeware under the GPL.

Jason, you can download the ressources from Oracle. The whole licensing regarding MySQL is a bit confused as there are two different levels to look at. On the one level there is the difference between the "community edition" of MySQL and the "Enterprise edition". Here we are talking only about the community edition, which again comes in two different ways:

as free software under GPL license. If you use this you are required to put your own software under GLP as well, provided you sell your software and embed parts of MySQL into it. Drivers and connectors are regarded as parts of MySQL in this sense, what I'm not sure about is the lib files like libmysql.dll